Nico di Angelo's Adventures in Finding Happiness
by Circe King
Summary: More than anything, Nico wanted to find a place to belong after the end of the war with Gaea. Here is his story of survival, growth and, eventually, acceptance. Please review! Nico/Jason in later chapters, Nico/OC friendship


I really just want Nico di Angelo to find some happiness, and even though I'm a die-hard Jasico shipper I think he needs to find that on his own first. So here's my attempt at giving Nico the happiness he truly deserves. I haven't done a FF for a while, so please review and let me know what I could do better!

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But there he was, standing out in the boiling sun at a bus stop cursing the day Leo Valdez was ever born. He had, in an attempt to be at least a little bit social (Hazel had been nagging him about it) gone to visit the son of Hephaestus and take him up on his offer to get him some real Mexican food, something Leo had promised to do after hearing that Nico had never even had a fajita before. He had to admit the food was absolutely delicious, and he was almost content to stay in the city for a few days, until a crippling warm front rolled in and he decided to get the hell out of there. Except apparently shadow travel didn't work very well in extremely hot climates, and moving even a few miles exhausted him, there was no way he was going to travel the hundreds of miles he'd need to get out of the giant black hole that was Texas. So he was stranded at a San Antonio bus stop wishing with all his might that Boreas might finally take pity on him and let a cold front move in.

"Looks like it's going to rain," the guy next to him commented. He was wearing a black and gray t-shirt with the local sports team's name emblazoned on the front, they had apparently just won some kind of championship based on the front page of the newspaper he was reading. Nico glanced up and, sure enough, black storm clouds were blowing in from the east. In the last ten minutes the wind had picked up considerably, and he knew he was doomed to experience yet another wild Texas weather change.

"Yeah," he muttered. He pulled his aviator jacket closed and zipped it shut despite the boiling heat. He hated storms even more than he hated southern hospitality. "Do you know when the next bus is coming?"

"Oh this stop hasn't been on the schedule for six months," the guy replied, glancing up from his paper.

"What?!"

"Yeah, VIA had to downsize so they cut a lot of the bus stops on this side of town. There's another stop a few blocks down, but I wouldn't want to risk walking out in that storm. Oh, there's my girlfriend." Sure enough a blue truck pulled over near the stop and the guy closed his newspaper and stood up. "You need a ride, kid?"

Nico almost took him up on his offer, but shook his head. "No it's alright, I'll just wait out the rain over there," he pointed in a random direction and the guy shrugged.

"Alright, get the Monterey melt, it's pretty good." Then the truck took off down the road at least ten miles over the speed limit, which seemed to be the norm in Texas.

Nico glanced over his shoulder and realized he'd pointed at a small orange and white building with a giant "W" on the front. The bright color hurt his eyes, but he was pretty hungry and they appeared to be selling some kind of food, so he got up and sprinted across the parking lot as the menacing clouds started to open up.

He made it to the door just as the clouds released their loads with a menace, sheets of water fell from the sky along with what appeared to be tiny balls of hail. A chubby girl with curly black hair and a scar across her left cheek gave him a sweet smile and called out, "Hi! Welcome to Whataburger, how can I help you?"  
Nico had to keep himself from wincing at her sugared tone and glanced up at the menu, and was shocked by the dozens of different burgers, chicken and, on the far end of the menu, salads. He stared for a few seconds until the girl, mercifully, came to this rescue.

"If you like chicken, the strips are pretty good, and the honey barbecue chicken sandwich is really popular." Her voice had dropped an octave to a more conversational tone, though she still spoke pretty quickly.

"Um," Nico ran a hand through his hair and tried to force his dyslexic mind to comprehend the tiny writing on the menu. "Do you just have a normal cheeseburger?"

"Sure," she replied, pressing a few buttons on the computer in front of her. "Do you want a combo or just the burger?"

"A combo," and as an afterthought, "please."

She gave him another sugar-coated smile and ran off his order at spit-fire speed before giving him a number and saying "That'll please six fifty."

Nico dug around in his pockets and realized with a sick feeling that he only had golden drachmas. "I-I think I forgot my wallet, sorry."

She looked him up and down for a second. "You look like you haven't eaten in days, and you're definitely from out of town. I get an employee discount anyway."

And before he could say anything she whipped out her credit card and swiped it, pocketing the receipt. "That'll be out in just a minute, sir."

Nico stood in shocked silence while she rushed off the clean tables, and made his way stiffly to a booth. He watched her clean frantically, like she wasn't allowed to rest for even a moment, then rush to the cash register to ring up several more people before, with the grace of a high-end waitress she carried over his food on a tray along with an assortment of ketchups.

"Saltpepperketchup?" she asked in a rush.

"Uh…" Nico stared at his options for a few moments before she gave him one of each and a wink before rushing off to take out the trash.

He unwrapped the cheeseburger and took a bite as he watched the storm unfold outside. The trees were thrashing and the cars on the highway seemed to have come to a standstill like the drivers had absolutely no idea how to drive in the rain.

"It's pathetic, really." Someone said, and he whipped around and see the cashier sweeping under one of the tables. "People in this city act like it's the fucking apocalypse when it rains. Oh, pardon my French. So what do you think?"

For a moment he thought she meant the traffic, then realized she was looking pointedly at his sandwich. He took another bite, actually tasting this one, and was surprised by how good it was, better than what he expected from a fast food joint. "Pretty good," he admitted, giving her a faint smile.

She grinned. "The best part about this job is seeing people try the food for the first time, it's corny, I know, but it's always kind of funny. Try the spicy ketchup, out-of-towners go crazy for the stuff."

Then she rushed off to take an elderly couple's order. Nico watched her go with mixed interest and confusion but quickly forgot about her as he discovered the beauty that was Whataburger fries with spicy ketchup.

Finally, when he'd eaten his meal and licked his fingers clean, the storm stopped suddenly and a line of blue sky appeared. He wasn't even surprised by the change in the weather and set his tray by the counter before turning to head out.

By now the sun was starting to set and the dispersing storm clouds were actually pretty incredible to look at, and luckily the sun's rays weren't strong enough to turn the puddles on the ground into the steaming humidity that usually followed the sudden storms. He made his way across the parking lot as street lights flipped on, and was halfway to the bus stop again before he realized he had absolutely no idea where he was going.

Oh, and that growling sound definitely wasn't thunder.

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So what do you think? In case you haven't guessed I do work at a Whataburger, which is why I know so damn much about that place. Also believe it or not we do get rain in San Antonio, Texas, it just happens to be in random spurts of either earth-shaking thunderstorms or god-is-spitting-at-you drizzle.

Please review!


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